And international students and business majors Mengshi Li and Yiran Wang examined education status among AIDS orphans in China.

These are just a few of the 580 undergraduates who presented research at the 16th Annual Denman Undergraduate Research Forum, a joint venture between Ohio State's Honors & Scholars Center, Undergraduate Research Office, and Office of Research.

With research on everything from anthropology to zoology, the Denman Forum is really "a cross section of the university," said Allison Snow, director of the Undergraduate Research Office.

"Every year I come back I see that the students are getting even better and better," said Denman sponsor and judge Dr. Gerard Boutin. "Undergraduate research makes a student become–instead of a receiver of information–an inquirer of information."

"The students come to understand that we're a big research university with a lot of opportunities," Snow said. "They don't just hear about the research. They're actually doing the research."